Boat elevator for marine railway system



March 8, 1966 H. J. KREIS BOAT ELEVATOR FOR MARINE RAILWAY SYSTEM 2Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 25, 1963 ATTORNEY Howard J Kre/s i BY Median5M March 8, 1966 H. J. KREIS BOAT ELEVATOR FOR MARINE RAILWAY SYSTEMFiled Oct. 25, 1963 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR Howard J. Kre/s an EATTORNEY O f lixlllll United States Patent M 3,238,733 BOAT ELEVATOR FORMARINE RAILWAY SYSTEM Howard J. Kreis, 3523 Abbie Place, Baltimore 7,Md. Filed Oct. 25, 1963, Ser. No. 319,926. 1 Claim. (Cl. 61-67) Thisapplication is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 128,841,filed Aug. 2, 1961, now abandaned.

This invention relates generally to marine railways, and moreparticularly it pertains to a boat elevator for removing water craftfrom a :body of water to the shore.

In congested waterways there is not usually space to install aconventional marine railway to bring a boat upon the shore. Often it isnot permitted to construct a shelter or even dockage for the craft.

It is an object of this invention to provide an arrangement of boatelevator which operates at a steep angle and so conserves and utilizeswater and shore space.

Another object of this invention is to provide a marine railway whichremoves a boat from the water and deposits it on land maintaining ahorizontal attitude thereof at all times during the process.

Still other objects of this invention are to provide a boat elevatorsystem which is economical to manufacture, efficient and reliable inoperational use and which is easy to install and maintain.

These and other objects and attendant advantages of this invention willbecome more readily apparent and understood from the following detailedspecification and accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a vertical section through a shoreline depicting the sideelevation of a boat elevator system embodying features of thisinvention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the boat elevator shown in FIG. 1 with the boatomitted and the carriage in phantom for clarity;

FIG. 3 is a vertical section taken along the line 33 of FIG. 2 andillustrating the conveyance of a boat from the water to land;

FIG. 4 is a detail view, much enlarged, of the hoisting shacklearrangement on the front axle of the carriage; and

FIG. 5 is an enlarged cross section taken on the line 5-5 of FIG. 3.

Referring now to the details of the drawings, there is shown depicted inFIG. 1 a boat elevator which, in the nature of a marine railway, isdesigned to lift a boat 12 from water to land but with a minimum ofdockyard. For this purpose, there is provided a pair of ramps 14 and 16preferably of reinforced masonry extending from a footing 18 in the bedof a body of water to the top of a shoreline bulkhead 20.

As best shown in FIG. 2, these ramps 14 and 16 are both split into rightand left halves and are each provided with wheel channels or tracks 22and 24, respectively.

The tracks 22 and 24 on the ramps 14 and 16 originate beneath thesurface of the water from spaced points A and B respectively, in acommon horizontal plane and rise at approximately 45 degree angle inparallel spaced relationship one to the other to points designated A andB, respectively, in a common upper horizontal plane.

3,238,733 Patented Mar. 8, 1966 Both ramps 14 and 16 then carry thetracks 22 and 24 shoreward over the bulkhead 20 in a common plane. Thisis possible because, as shown best in FIG. 2 the tracks 22 are ofgreater gauge than tracks 24 and thus can straddle the latter. Thisshoreward portion of the trackage can be extended as far as desired asindicated by the broken lines in the drawings.

A wheeled carriage 26 is provided as shown in FIG. 1 and in phantom inFIG. 2. As best shown in FIG. 5, the front wheels 28 are adapted for thenarrower gauge of tracks 24 whereas the rear wheels 30 conform to thewide gauge tracks 22. The gauge of the latter must also be great enoughto permit the passage of the boat 12 between the halves of ramp 14.

The front wheels 28 are spaced from the rear wheels 30 a distance equalto A-B (A'B) which permits the carriage 26 to ascend the ramps 14 and 16with the boat 12 in a horizontal position.

An endless driving rope 32 extends between the rails of tracks 24 from adrive wheel 38 of a power winch 40 to a pair of upper sheaves 34 andthence to a lower sheave 36 near the footing 18.

As shown in FIG. 4, a hoisting shackle 42 is mounted on the axle 44between the front wheels 28 of the carriage 26 and attached to an eye 46which is clamped to the driving rope 32.

With the carriage 26 submerged at its lowest point, as shown in solidlines in FIG. 3, the boat 12 is moored to a staff 48 which extends abovethe water line from the front of carriage 26. This places the boat 12directly over cradle blocks 50 which are secured on the carriage 26 andcorrectly aligned between the halves of ramp 14. When the winch 46 isoperated, the eye 46 of drive rope 32 lifts the shackle 42 and thecarriage 26 moves upwardly along the tracks 22 and 24. This movementcontinues as the boat 12 settles in the cradle blocks 50 and, thussupported on the carriage, the boat 12 is lifted from the water withoutbeing tilted from the horizontal.

The eye 46 passes readily over the uppermost upper sheave 34 andcontinues to pull the carriage onto the shoreward extension of thetracks 22 and 24 which are now in a common plane if the ground is level.It is obvious that should the shore be sloping a correspondingdepression or elevation of one track with relation to the other willstill maintain the boat 12 and carriage 26 in a horizontal attitude.

Obviously, many modifications and variations of the present inventionare possible in light of the above teachings. It is, therefore, tobe'understood that within the scope of the appended claim the inventionmay be practiced otherwise than as specifically described.

What is claimed is:

A marine railway for removing watercraft from a body of water,comprising, inside and outside pairs of tracks rising at an angle ofabout 45 in parallel planes and horizontally spaced relationship from alower common horizontal plane beneath the surface of the water to acommon upper horizontal plane thereabove, horizontal extensions of saidinside and outside tracks in said common upper horizontal plane,horizontal extensions of said inside and outside tracks in said commonlower horizontal plane, a boat supporting carriage having front and rearaxles with wheels mounted thereon, with the horizontal distance betweensaid inside and outside angularly rising spaced tracks in said parallelplanes being equal to the distance between said front and rear axles ofsaid carriage so that said carriage rides on said spaced tracks in ahorizontal attitude, winch means including a cable formed into anendless loop for moving said carriage at a constant attitude along saidangularly rising spaced tracks, a driving sheave positioning one end ofsaid loop between said horizontal extensions of said inside and outsidetracks in said common upper plane, an idler sheave positioning the otherend of said loop between said inside and outside tracks beneath saidwater, a pair of vertically spaced idler sheaves positioned between andat the crest of said inside and outside tracks rising from said Water toreceive the upper and lower strands of cable forming said loop thereof,and means connecting said carriage to said loop, whereby movement ofsaid cable is positively transmitted to said carriage.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 697,202 4/ 1902Donne 6167 2,373,327 3/1921 Haalck 61-67 X 1,585,193 5/1926 Haalck 61-671,860,177 5/1932 Dravo et al. 6167 2,371,461 3/1945 Newell 61-672,564,951 8/1951 Blagden 61-67 FOREIGN PATENTS 26,466 1906 Austria.1,080,332 5/1954 France.

852,664 10/ 1952 Germany.

EARL J. WITMER, Primary Examiner.

